Living the Secret

Living the Secret

Prologue: Ayden & Jayden are 14 year old twins who grew up in Maple Community, a town that exists inside a hollow sugar maple tree. [The citizens in this tree are small enough to ride on ints (ants).] The boys decided to live in the outside world, so they opened a crack in a branch behind their school. The branch is about fifty feet in the air. They just jumped out of the tree.

“Hold tight! The wind is stronger out here than we thought it would be,” Jayden hollers as they slide down their escape ropes.

The tops of both ropes are still hooked to the wooden lifter the boys attached inside the tree branch. However, the bottom ends of their ropes are not attached to anything, which causes the twins to swing wildly in the unexpected wind. One huge gust flips Ayden’s legs above his head. The rotation causes his rope to cross over Jayden’s rope.

“Jayden!” Ayden screams. “Help me!” As Ayden’s body finishes the flip, his weight thrusts him down and yanks his climbing belt upward under his ribs. “It hurts! It hurts!” His scream shows his agony. “What do I do?”

Jayden commands, “Raise your arms. Grab your rope as high as you can and pull!” It works. The pull lifts his body and resets the climbing belt at his waist. Ayden slumps his shoulders forward and cries. “We’re crazy! We can’t do this! We aren’t ready to be out here.”

“Ayden, we just jumped out of our tree. We have no choice right now. We’re hanging in the air,” Jayden states. “You must focus. We’ve got to survive.”

More wind gusts hit. The pair swings mercilessly. Their minute weight is no match for wind outside their tree. All they can do is hang on. Their swinging and flipping causes their ropes to twist and turn until they’re totally hooked together. Panic rises!

“Branch!” Ayden screams. Jayden pivots his head and sees that a thick horizontal branch is directly in their path. If they don’t do something immediately, they’ll crash.

“Pull left! Hard!” Jayden yells. Both boys furiously swing their legs to the left and lean the same way. Jayden clears the branch, but Ayden doesn’t. His upper back slams into the branch, causing his head and shoulders to snap backwards. His legs swing backwards below the obstacle, severely arching his back, then they snap forward, smacking into Jayden’s knees.

The force of the collision causes both to lose their grips on their ropes and scream in pain-filled fear! Only the hooks at their belts save them from plummeting to the ground. Jayden grabs his rope with his right hand, but Ayden is now bent forward, held only by his belt.

“I’ve got you!” Jayden yells and quickly grabs his twin’s belt with his left hand, giving him the chance to pull his torso up.

Ayden twists his upper body to reach the rope now behind him. He screams in pain as he throws his right arm in an arc backwards, grabbing the rope above his head. Tears fall. He knows he can’t let his pain stop him. He pivots right to face his rope and gets his left hand on it.

Seeing his twin safe for the moment, Jayden releases him, putting both hands on his own rope. Their quick movements save them, but tangle their ropes even more.

The boys are a jumbled mess suspended very high in the air. The knotting of their escape ropes means they’re not as close to their landing branch as they had planned. They’re too far above it to simply let go and drop. They must make a new plan fast.

Jayden worries that Ayden’s pain may be too great to keep going, but they can’t keep hanging in the air, being buffeted by the winds.

Teamwork is needed. Pain must be ignored. Fear must be pushed aside and logical thinking must prevail.

Blinking his eyes to push away the tears, Ayden takes the lead and says. “Okay Jayden, we have to do this together. Our ropes aren’t just twisted, but that flip tied them into a knot. If we keep pulling, it’ll tighten so much we’ll never get it out. And we need that length to reach our landing branch.” Jayden looks up, sees what his brother is describing, and nods in agreement.

Thinking aloud Ayden continues. “Since the ropes are connected to our belts, and the knot is above our heads, I’ll climb up the rope to the tangled part. Then I’ll unhook from my rope and attach me to yours. I can undo the knot, if I’m not hooked onto it.”

“Are you nuts? You just slammed into a branch, remember?” Jayden retorts. “What if wind hits when you’re detaching from your rope?”

“What choice do we have?” Ayden answers. “We need the ropes unhooked so we can reach our landing branch.” Not waiting for a reply, Ayden takes a deep breath and reaches up to start his climb. As he pulls, the pain in his back becomes too great. He screams! Tears gush from his eyes.

“Get it through your head,” Jayden yells. “Your back just smashed into a branch. You’re lucky you can still move your legs. I think your idea is crazy, but I can’t think of a better one. So I’ll do it.”

Jayden reaches up and starts climbing his rope. Once he climbs to the knot, he grabs his twin’s rope and twists his leg around it. Then he unhooks himself from his rope and attaches himself to Ayden’s. Hanging on with his left hand, he uses his right to start pulling up his rope to untie the knot, flipping the pulled up part over his shoulder, winding it around his neck. Just as he gets most of the lower end of his rope pulled up, another big wind gust hits!

Both boys are attached to Ayden’s rope. Jayden is above Ayden. A lot of Jayden’s rope is looped around his shoulders and neck. If Jayden loses his grip, his rope will tighten and he’ll be strangled!

Realizing the imminent danger, Jayden quickly grabs the loose bottom of his rope and jams it through, undoing the knot. Swinging wildly he bends forward, letting the rope fall over his head and off his shoulders. Below Jayden, Ayden gets hit with the falling rope. He pulls himself close to his own rope and tucks his head to his chest. The falling mass hits the back of his shoulders and drops below him.

The wind gusts are now fierce. The tree’s branches aren’t just swaying, but bending. This wind assault continues for miunets. All the boys can do is hold on and hope.

Finally, the gusts somewhat subside.

Their twisted ropes are unknotted, with the parts above them still tangled. But now the bottom of Jayden’s rope is swinging freely. The two must swing their legs to move Ayden’s rope closer to the other one. In a few swings Jayden is able to grab his own rope. He detaches from Ayden, hooks back onto his own, and slides down to his twin’s level.

Glad they’re alive, Jayden says, “I told you it was a crazy idea.” Looking up he adds, “At least we’re only twisted together now. We better keep going.”

By talking to each other and working in tandem, they twist and turn their bodies, attempting to detangle their ropes. This continuous movement, after smashing into the branch and while hanging on for their lives, is exhausting. But they have no choice. “Look down!” Jayden hollers. “Our landing branch is close. Get ready to grab it!”